pwrusr.com

OK, so, I’ve sealed my old XP Install as said at a previous article (look here: XP clone & migrate (without reinstall) ).

The following is a short summary:

I then cloned the SATA HD connected to an nforce2 controller & AMD CPU to an IDE HD connected to an IDE controller by using Ubuntu and dd.

Next I connected the IDE HD to a new intel C2D-based mobo on the JMB 368 IDE controller, and all went fine (all recognized and all): end of story.

What I expected to do was to port my AMD CPU + nforce2 XP Install to another mobo, precisely a still good (and a bit old), Biostar P4M800 M7 A with an intel P4 Prescott 2.8Ghz HT EM64T, VIA PT890 Chipset + VT8237 SB & SATA (this is my spouse’s pc – for practical reasons she needed hers and I, mine, and since her data was on mine xp install…), pratically is the description of an AMD to INTEL switch.

So, just before connecting the IDE HD to the new mobo, I cloned It once again, this time to a different SATA HD.

As soon as the cloning process finished, I suddenly took this HD and connected it to the Integrated VIA SATA Controller of the Biostar mobo.

First boot, crap! It kept BSOD-ing continuously. I said: DaN, Why???

After some thinking I figured it out: the reason was the SATA port and the VIA Controller (yeah, I know: reading this does seem obvious, but while you are doing stuff is another thing): there were no drivers before, so XP complained about it!

I thought that, if XP was smart enough to search for SATA drivers on its own, were it would expect them to be, it’ll have worked.

So I searched the (frak) Via SATA Storage controller drivers. Best bet was manufacturer’s website, in this case BIOSTAR, so I  after some struggling found what I was searching for: VRAID_DRIVER_V550B.ZIP SATA Drivers. I grabbed a copy and put another inside my flash drive. Next I booted my spouse’s PC with Ubuntu live and accessed the flash drive were the driver resided.

I opened the driver’s zip file and searched through the folders, until I found what I was looking for:

• VRAID_Driver_V550B\VRAIDDrv\XP\x86\viamraid.sys

From ubuntu I copied this file to:

• C:\Windows\system32\drivers

Then rebooted the system with windows xp.

To my surprise, I discovered It worked.

After cloning and migrating my xp install, I needed to access the “other” HDDs connected to my new PCs SATA II (for more info, see here: xp clone & migrate (without install) ).

I have an IDE HD with XP installed, an IDE DVDRW connected on the same IDE channel, then 3 other SATA HDDs, connected to their SATA ports:

• 2 SATA WD Caviar RE2 500 GB.
• 1 SATA WD Raptor X 150 GB.

I use those disks for storage & backup purposes (& for Ubuntu of course [the Raptor]).
I needed to access these HDDs from XP, but since the MB is the standard, non-raid version, ICH9, and I’ve checked from BIOS “AHCI Mode” for SATA HDDs, I was out.

Not intel nor Gigabyte does ship a “AHCI ICH9 XP driver”, shame to them; but we can solve applying a simple hack on the official intel driver.

Get yours from intel – the actual (and the one I am rerferring to) is iata78_enu.exe, but other versions should apply nicely.

So, launch a shell and execute:

• iata78_enu.exe -a
• Follow the steps like you’d do for a normal install.
• Open Explorer, then search for C:\ Program Files -> Intel -> Intel Matrix Storage Manager -> Driver [or Driver64 if using XP64].

There you should see some files.

• Copy/paste “IaStor.sys” to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers
• Open “iaahci.inf” with notepad and CTRL+H, then change “2821″ to “2923″ in all occurencies.
• Search for this string: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2922&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = “Intel(R) ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller”.
• Change with: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2923&CC_0106.DeviceDesc = “Intel(R) ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller”.
• Close and save.
  

Create a new file, call it ahci.reg and put the following content inside it:

• Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; Der Treiber iaStor.sys muss vorher in das Verzeichnis
  ; Windows\system32\drivers\ kopiert werden
  ; Erstellt am 10.08.2007 von www.jzelectronic.de
  ; Für ICH9: www.intel.com
  ; Trademarks: Intel (www.intel.de), Microsoft (www.microsoft.de)[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2923&cc_0106]
  “Service”=”iaStor”
  “ClassGUID”=”{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}”[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor]
  “Type”=dword:00000001
  “Start”=dword:00000000
  “Group”=”SCSI miniport”
  “ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
  “ImagePath”=”system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys”
  “tag”=dword:00000019
  “DisplayName”=”Intel AHCI Controller”[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Parameters]
  “queuePriorityEnable”=dword:00000000

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor\Enum]
  “0″=”PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2923&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_02\\3&13c0b0c5&0&FA”
  “Count”=dword:00000001
  “NextInstance”=dword:00000001

• Execute ahci.reg and say yes.
• Reboot.
• As soon as you get to xp, you’ll get presented with the install hardware wizard for the misterious “PCI Device”.
• Choose expert and choose the path of the previous file, C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Driver\
• If you made everything correct, you’ll be asked to install an unsigned driver (blame intel for this…).
• Your SATA HDDs should start to popup and you can access and use them normally.

Infos taken and freely re-elaborated with my experience from Gigabyte support forum: http://62.109.81.232/cgi-bin/sbb/sbb.cgi?&a=show&forum=1&show=3792&start= (German).

A new MB doesn’t always mean headaches … OK, OK, I know, I know, let’s take this #### pill.

I got this new super/ultra/cool/powerful ________ Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3 MB.

It’s intel P35 based. I come from XP and I am an usual (not MMOG addicted), gamer.

So, all of my data stood inside a SATA WD Raptor X 150G, including my OS, XP. I needed to move this XP install from the good old glorious, powerful, full-featured, performing _______ ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe Rev 2 to this new Gigabyte.

I proceeded this way:

1. Connected a new IDE disk to the IDE controller.
2. Booted Ubuntu live and cloned the Raptor inside the new IDE HD (dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda bs=32256).
3. Booted the old MB with the new IDE HD and made sure it worked perfectly and flawlessly.
4. SYSPREP-PED it with sysprep.exe, found inside XP_CD\SUPPORT\TOOLS\Deploy.cab (I used these options, “MiniSetup” and “Pre-Activate”- get ready for product key).
5. Switched the IDE HD from the old to the NEW MB.
6. Booted it.
7. After some MS XP basic questions, I got my old desktop.
8. I then installed the new drivers.

All of this can seem daunting, a pain in the ass, but, seriously, it isn’t. For me, everything went just fine but my SATA HDDs: they disappered!…Next arcticle is gonna show you hou I managed to get my SATA HDDs working; I anticipate that I’ve the other SATA HDDs on “AHCI mode” from BIOS (for other reasons…soon I will tell why).